Author Archives: Tony

It’s the Formation, Stupid…

Torres has been brilliant, and Stevie and Xabi are back on form. But the reason Liverpool is winning again is that the 4-2-3-1 formation allows each of them to play his best game Continue reading

Posted in Glancing Headers | 9 Comments

Is Israel-Iran Enmity Irreversible?

No, it isn’t. Two of my favorite commentators, Daniel Levy and Trita Parsi, explain why Continue reading

Posted in Shameless Cronyism | 3 Comments

How Chavez Eats and Keeps His Cake

The surest sign of the relative decline of U.S. power is the fact that regimes that are militantly at odds with Washington — think Chavez in Venezuela, or even the Islamic Republic of Iran — are able to routinely defy the U.S. because they have something to offer that Washington needs. (Oil, in the case of Venezuela, and in Tehran’s case, the prospect of stability in Iraq.) And that suggests that for a host of more powerful and less ideologically committed regimes in the developing world — from Turkey to Brazil, Indonesia to South Africa — there is an unprecedented opportunity to advance their own interest by refraining from aligning themselves with any single bloc, but instead cutting deals with various power centers.
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Posted in Situation Report | 7 Comments

‘Lost’ Entries on Rootless Cosmopolitan

Previous entries that now register as “not available” are ones that got left behind in a server migration. We’re working on retrieving them Continue reading

Posted in Housekeeping | Leave a comment

A Stateless Dinner

So American “Chinese” isn’t really Chinese. Well what’s “Indian,” or “Italian” for that matter? Continue reading

Posted in Cuisine | 13 Comments

U.S. Pours Gasoline on Gaza Fires

Once upon a time, Israelis and Palestinians looked to the U.S. to intervene at moments of heightened confrontation to mediate between the two sides and contain the damage. The Bush Administration, however, has proved entirely incapable of playing this role, because its own interventions are hidebound by the illusion that it can marginalize and destroy Hamas, the party that represents at least half of the Palestinian population Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 43 Comments

South Africa’s Racist Present

Guest Column: Sean Jacobs. What to make of the racist torture incident at a South African campus Continue reading

Posted in Guest Columns, The Whole World's Africa | 21 Comments

Israel in Deadly Denial

Guest Column: Uri Avnery As dozens of Palestinian civilians are killed in Israel’s fierce retaliation for the latest round of rocket fire, the veteran Israeli peace campaigner Uri Avnery discusses the inevitable — it may take the death of hundreds or even thousands more Palestinians, and scores more Israelis, but in the end, Israel will talk to Hamas.

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Posted in Situation Report | 106 Comments

Obama and the ‘Jewish Vote’

The problem with Obama, for the Zionist establishment, is that they can’t be sure he hates the Palestinians enough. The deeper problem for the Zionist establishment, of course, is that Jewish Americans are flocking to Obama despite their coded warnings Continue reading

Posted in Featured Analysis, Situation Report | 81 Comments

Inside a Failed Palestinian Police State

Guest Column: Arthur Neslen, writing from Ramallah, offers a glimpse of the political decay at the heart of Mahmoud Abbas’s Vichy state. Hamas doesn’t need to challenge Fatah in the West Bank, because Fatah is destroying itself through corruption and kow-towing to the U.S. and Israel. Never mind Hamas, it’s hard to find a Fatah activist on the West Bank who actually believes any good will come from the Bush-Olmert-Abbas “peace process” so regularly hyped in the Western media. Continue reading

Posted in Guest Columns, Situation Report | 22 Comments